


One for the road

by CosimaHellahaus



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Road Trip, Sharing a Bed, all the tropes tbh, and a lil bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:29:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9104713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosimaHellahaus/pseuds/CosimaHellahaus
Summary: Lena fails to completely disarm the virus. While it can no longer kill all aliens, it takes away all of their superpowers and makes them as vulnerable as humans. For her own safety, Supergirl comes up with the amazing plan of Lena Luthor leaving town until the DEO can find a cure. Together with Kara Danvers to keep her company, of course.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> basically Lena and Kara go on a road trip and fall in love. So many tropes. so. many.

 

_Lena fails to completely disarm the virus. While it can no longer kill all aliens, it takes away all of their superpowers and makes them as vulnerable as humans. Except for Kyptonians._

 

Lillian Luthor turns to face her daughter. Her eyes reveal nothing, but her voice is sweet as honey when she talks. Everything about her screams murderous.

“I am _so_ disappointed in you, Lena. Here I thought, you could understand reason and finally choose the right side, but it seems that it was just too much to ask.”

“Well mother, it wouldn’t be the first time for you to express your disappointment.” Even though her expression betrays nothing, a small lump begins forming in the throat. “I suggest you leave before Supergirl decides not even you are worth sparing.”

Her mother takes a step closer, closing the distance between her and her daughter. An almost undetectable intake of breath escapes Lena. Supergirl takes a few steps towards her, ready to jump in between them if anything spirals out of control.

Lillian smiles. “You chose to fight against me. I hope you understand what that means for your life expectancy.” Without waiting for a response, she turns around. Before Supergirl has time to react Lillian is swooshed away by one of her enhanced minions.

Kara glances at Lena. Despite her earlier bravado, she can see the girl is barely holding herself together. Not wanting to make it worse but not being sure if it’s safe to leave her alone, Kara chooses to simply lay a hand on Lena’s shoulder, without saying anything. Her apology goes unspoken. Instead, she asks simply:

“Would you like me to fly you back to L-Corp?”

Lena turns her head and smiles at her. A sad, sad smile. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem. Hop up!” Kara gestures to her back.

With Lena holding on as tightly as she can around Supergirl’s waist - she’d be basically crushing her internal organs if not for Supergirl’s steel muscles - they fly off.

 

* * *

  


Kara flies into DEO’s headquarters through the balcony that was made especially for her. “We have a huge problem.”

Alex is already there. She nods, “I know, J’onn filled me in.” They enter the building, side by side. “You didn’t come straight here, did you?”

“No, I...I gave Lena a ride back to L-Corp first.” Kara says, not looking at her sister. “She was pretty shook. I think we should keep an eye on her, keep her safe.”

“Well, it’s not like we can lock her up in a tower until we catch her mother.”

Kara tilts her head in thought, as if she’s actually considering it.

Alex comes to a halt, “hey where is this coming from? You did a good job today, Kara. Even if the war is still going on, we won this battle.”

“I know! I know, I just…” Kara shakes her head and closes her eyes. Her thoughts however, do not dissipate that easily. “Anyway, what’s the plan?”

Alex smiles. “I’m glad you asked.” She gestures with her head towards Winn, who’s staring at some chemical formula on his computer. Eliza is standing behind him, pointing at something at the screen. They’re so lost in conversation, they don’t even realize Alex and Kara are approaching them until they’re basically standing three feet away.

Alex starts explaining, “Winn is going through that memory stick you brought from the Fortress of Solitude, trying to understand what actually happened to the virus, and if it’s going to change with time. Mom and I are already working on a cure.”

Kara nods, and adds after a few seconds, “Maybe we should bring Lena in on this. If she was able to partially disable the virus, she could definitely help with finding a cure, too.” Even though she tries to sell it as an offhanded suggestion, it still comes off as a little desperate.

Alex frowns. “What’s up with you and Lena?” Her eyes widen considerably, as a realization dawns upon her, “Oh my god are you like…dating?” She half whispers the last part of the sentence.

“What?! No!” Kara shakes her head so fast, Alex is afraid it’s just going to take off and away from Kara’s body. “Look, she saved my life at that party. If it weren’t for her, I’d be ash in an urn right now. The least I can do is try to keep her safe, now that her mother’s after blood. Particularly _her_ blood.”

J’onn approaches them, taking on the conversation. “She’s right. We can’t let Miss Luthor out of our sight. She could prove to be a valuable asset for the DEO, given her P.h.D. in electromagnetic generators. She could help us take down Cadmus.”

Alex sighs, but nods. With her hands on her hips and eyes as determined as ever, it’s clear she’s all business mode. “Alright. What did you have in mind?”

“Oh! I know what we should do!” Kara squeals, trying really hard to not sound super excited. She is not particularly successful.

 

* * *

  

“A road trip? With _you_?” Lena can’t believe her ears. Not that she’d be against it, but it hardly feels safer on a road in the middle of nowhere rather than here, in National City, where she has the police, the DEO and a dozen other agencies looking out for her. Even if her companion would literally be the strongest person on this planet. And the prettiest, too.

Supergirl stammers on, hoping really hard her distress isn’t picked up by Lena. “Well, it’s not exactly a road trip. And not with me, but with our common and very good friend, Kara Danvers!” She says with a huge grin.

Lena clears her throat. “Excuse me, Supergirl, I do not mean to sound rude. Kara is really amazing, but...not even _you_ are going to be there to protect me?”

Supergirl gets fixated on the least important part of the sentence. “You - you think she’s amazing?”. Her voice sounds hopeful.

“Of course I do.” Lena frowns, not exactly understanding where this is going. “She’s the closest thing i have to a friend, here in National City.” After a small pause during which she sees Supergirl getting redder - it’s probably hotter in here than she realized - she adds, “But back to the road trip. Why - “

Supergirl comes back to herself. “Right! Right. I have already talked to the DEO about this, and they agree it’s a good plan. Until they will be able to find a cure to the virus, Kryptonians are the only targets Cadmus has left. Being near me would only mean more danger.”

She gets more and more excited as she talks, and starts walking around the room.

“But! If you go under the radar, like - an old fashioned road trip - no credit cards, no phone calls, nothing, it’s going to be really hard to find you. Especially if they’ll try to take me down at the same time.”

By the time she finishes ler little speech, her eyes are glowing with excitement. She turns to look at Lena expectantly.

Lena hums, in agreement, seriously considering the feasibility of the plan. “Divide and conquer. I have to say, it’s not a bad plan.”

Supergirl claps her hands, not able to stop herself. “Yes! I knew it! Thank you, Miss Luthor!”

Lena laughs, surprised. “Why? I should be the one thanking you.” She smiles. This feels more like a vacation than it should.

As Supergirl heads out to the balcony, Lena remembers something important. She hurries after her and asks the most important question about the whole plan.

“Supergirl, wait!”

Supergirl turns around and hovers just above Miss Luthor’s office, with her hands on her hips and a huge smile on her face. “Yes?”

“What does Kara think about all this?” A note of fear creeps into her expression, but it is gone as quickly as it appeared at Supergirl’s answer.

Supergirl’s smile grows. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Miss Luthor. I’ve already talked to her about it, and she’s just as excited as I am!”

She starts flying away into the sky, but then remembers something. She turns around and sees that Lena is still on the balcony, looking at her. Using a little bit of her super voice, she shouts, “Pack comfortable clothes!”

As she turns back, her super hearing picks up a light laughter from the direction of L-Corp’s building.

 


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of Jealous Lena™, Alex and Lena have never met before in this fic. Just. Go with it.

Kara closes the van’s trunk after making room for the last of their bags. Lena is standing next to her with her arms across her chest. It kind of reminds Kara of her sister. 

“Alright! That was the last of them.” She smiles as Lena. “You ready?”

The other woman nods. “Yes, and thank you again, for doing this.” She really does look thankful. 

Kara smiles and does a sweeping motion with one hand, fixing her glasses with the other. “Oh, it’s nothing, really! I’m just happy to help.” 

Lena gets inside the van. Alex, who’s been keeping her distance, comes closer to say her goodbyes. The determination and excitement in Kara’s eyes can be seen from a mile away, but that doesn’t stop Alex from asking,”You sure you want to do this?”

Kara nods, her face serious. “Yes. It’s our best bet. Keep her out of trouble until you guys find a cure and a way to reverse the virus.” She turns to look at the van. “I mean, no one is going to think the head of a million dollar company is away on a road trip in an old, Scooby Dooey van, with just a journalist and a lot of pot stickers.” She turns back to face Alex and smiles again, a little sadder than before. “I’m gonna miss you like heck, though.” 

Alex opens her mouth to say something, but in the end she just nods and and opens her arms for Kara to fall into them. They hug for a while. No one dares to intrude on their moment. As they part, Alex strokes Kara’s hair and kisses her forehead. “Be careful out there.” 

“I will.”

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Alex takes out of her pocket a small burner. “Here. It has my and J’onn’s number on it. We made sure its calls are completely off the grid. Not even Cadmus can track it.” 

Kara takes the phone and thanks her sister. Alex smiles and shoes Kara away, before she’ll get so sentimental she won’t let her leave. 

“Have some fun while you’re at it!” She shouts after Kara as the girl enters the van on the driver’s side. 

Lena looks on quietly as Kara makes herself comfortable at the wheel. Kara feels her eyes on her, so she turns to look at the other girl. She’s met with a cheeky grin. 

“What?” Kara asks, smiling without really meaning to. 

“I thought you said you weren’t dating anyone.” Lena says, savouring every word. 

Kara frowns and turns back to look in the rearview mirror and she backs the van. It has absolutely nothing to do with not meeting Lena’s eyes. “I’m not.” 

“Mhmm.” She couldn’t be more obvious even if she wanted to. “That goodbye from the DEO agent says otherwise.”

Kara bursts out laughing. “What?! Alex?” She hits the breaks, afraid she’s going to crash into something. There’s earns her a honk from the car behind her. Kara clears her throat, trying to ignore the insults she picks up with her super hearing. “No, no, it’s not like that at all.”

“What is it like, then?” Lena asks with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re sisters.” Kara chances a look at Lena and laughs at her incredulous expression. “It’s true!”

Lena’s eyebrows are at the base of her hairline. Still, she has to admit she feels a little lighter at the confession. “I don’t doubt it.” She can’t help but smile. Kara’s eyes however are back on the road. Lena stretches a little in her seat, makes herself comfortable. “So where are we going?”

“East.” The lights turn red, and it gives Kara a chance to look at Lena. “No actual destination, really.” 

No answer comes. The traffic lights turn green, so Kara can’t study Lena’s expression as much as she wanted to. When she gets the chance to look at her however, she sees that her eyes are closed and a deep serenity has settled down over her. It makes her look incredibly young. Kara is struck by how beautiful she looks and before she can help it, she stretches out a hand and moves a loose strand of hair out of Lena’s face. Lena opens her eyes at the movement, but doesn’t say anything. A small smile forms on her lips and her eyes close. 

They don’t say anything else until their ride for that day is over and they’re out of National City.

 

* * *

 

 

They stop at a partially dubious bed & breakfast on the highway, about 80 miles outside of National City. It represents everything Lena despises when looking for accommodation while traveling, but she has to admit no one would ever think of looking for her here. The fact that the old lady at the reception is more preoccupied with her soap opera than she is with their fake ID’s  is definitely a big plus. 

The elevators aren’t working, so they have to get to the third floor using the stairs. The halls are decorated with tacky paintings, and the carpets have stains of alcohol God knows how old. At least the lock on their door is working. 

After a lot of arguing Kara lets Lena help with the bags, as in she lets her carry  _ one  _ bag: the lightest one, that only contains important papers and documents Lena didn’t dare leave behind. “If I disappear it’s best for the world if those papers disappear with me,” is what she said when Kara asked why she needed to take them with her.

Lena has to admit their room could be worse. There are two twin beds, separated by a small night stand. Directly opposite the room entrance is the bathroom, with a door that looks like it’s going to fall to piece at the slightest push. There is however plenty of room to move about. 

“I really hope the DEO is going to have better motel suggestions in the future.” Kara mutters to herself.

“That is probably the meanest thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Lena jokes. It earns her a laugh. 

“Yes well, I understand we have to lay low, but bed bugs were never a part of the deal.” Kara looks suddenly horrified. “Oh God I hope we won’t have to actually deal with bed bugs.”

“We can always call Supergirl to come and save us.” Lena suggests, only half-joking. 

“Mmm, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Kara says absent-mindedly. Then, as if waking up, “So, do you wanna eat something? I’m  _ starving _ .” Her stomach joins her with a growl. 

“Well, your stomach is definitely making a compelling argument.”

There’s a pizzeria in the same building as the motel, which seems like the most sanitary choice given their surroundings. Kara goes to buy some pizzas as Lena unpacks the little brought with them from the car and takes a shower. When Kara comes back, she’s already changed to some animal-patterned pyjamas and is watching some horrible reality show on the small television they have cramped in one corner. 

Kara enters the room with a flourish, holding two pizza boxes big enough to serve as a ping-pong table. “Two extra-large with everything on top coming right up!” When she sees Lena however, she comes to a halt, and, after a second, bursts out laughing. 

“Oh my God!” Kara places the boxes on the small table near the tv, afraid she’ll drop them. “Who would have thought the most powerful woman in National City has pyjamas with small horses and pigs printed on them?”

Lena fakes a hurt expression. “You are not funny, Miss Danvers.”

Kara shakes her head, trying to hold in her laughter. “I know, I’m sorry, it’s just…” she gestures with her hands towards Lena. “It’s just really cute.” She turns around and takes opens one of the pizza boxes, before facing Lena again. “Pizza?” She asks it as a peace offering.

Lena raises an eyebrow. “You cannot bribe me with food.” Still, she extends a hand and takes a huge slice out of the box. Her expression changes completely once she starts eating. “Oh my God, this is amazing,”

Kara’s face is already stuffed with her own slice so she doesn’t answer. She nods instead. After swallowing and being able to talk properly again, she asks,

“So am I forgiven?”

Lena pretends to give it some serious consideration. In the end she shrugs and comes to the conclusion that given the delicious pizza perks, it might be worth it to keep having her around.

 

* * *

 

 

They leave early the next day. Lena continues riding shotgun, Kara keeps on being as perky as ever as if the mattresses they had to sleep on weren’t filled by Satan with hard arches that pressed right between her shoulder blades. 

Kara sees Lena out of the corner of her eye. She covers her head with her hoodie and draws her knees to chest, completely ignoring Kara’s plea of keeping her seat belt on. ‘I trust you to not kill us’ is the response Kara gets. Lena closes her eyes and her expression relaxes somewhat - the crease between her eyebrows disappears and the corners of her mouth rise slightly, without actually forming a smile. She looks a little less displeased than she did after Kara woke her up. 

Kara tries to ignore it, but the sight reminds her of a cat ready to fall asleep - begging you to pet her yet deadly if you do. She does not believe however that Miss Luthor would be too pleased by the resemblance. Still, she can’t say she isn’t sympathetic. The mattress was a menace, even for someone with muscles hard as concrete.

Kara breaks the silence that settled between them, after using her super hearing and making sure Lena hadn’t already fallen asleep. “You’re not a morning person, are you?” 

Lena opens one eye to look at the clock, then closes it again. “I’m not even a person before 9 a.m.”

Kara smiles, but doesn’t say anything. After a while, she senses Lena’s breathing even out. Her head falls back against the seat belt slot, at the joining between the car frame and the seat.

Kara shifts focus back in front of her. The sun falls directly into her eyes. It doesn’t blind her, but the powerful light makes her eyes sting a little. She squints, but it doesn’t get much better. Pretty ironic, given how her powers are dependent on the sun. Kara keeps at it for a while, but in the end the stinging becomes unbearable. 

Kara looks back at the woman beside her. Lena’s jaw has fallen slack, and now there’s a some drool dribbling all the way down her neck. Kara would actually take a picture if not for the obvious safety hazard of using your phone while driving. Instead, after slowing down to a halt near the edge of the road, she takes a napkin from the box behind the shifter. She stretches out a hand and slowly wipes away the marks, starting at the neck, making her way up to the corner of her mouth. As her fingers linger near Lena’s lips, making sure she didn’t miss anything, her eyes rise to Lena’s face. 

She’s already watching her. Kara feels herself getting hotter under her gaze. Her fingers tremble slightly, so she redraws them before Lena gets a chance to notice it.

Kara grips the steering wheel so hard she hears a crack. Her foot shakes on the gas pedal. She loosens her hold, but keeps her eyes ahead. No more side glances. 

Lena doesn’t say anything about it, but Kara’s mind is racing. She feels ten different questions at the tip of her tongue, feels their weight right on her chest.A drop of sweat makes its way down her lower back. She stretches her neck both ways and tries to regain control of her feelings.

Fighting aliens has never been this hard. 

 

They stop at a gas station to refuel both the car and themselves. Dust is rising from the ground, making everything shimmery. A dirty old truck is parked in front of one of the gas pumps. A middle-aged man dressed in a sleazy once white shirt is leaning against the driver’s door, chewing something. The top three buttons of his top are wide open, leaving very little to the imagination. 

Kara parks their van in the small parking lot adjacent to the station. After stretching as much as the cramped space allows her, she turns to Lena, who’s dozed off once again after their little tense Spit Moment. Kara places a hand on Lena’s shoulder and shakes her gently.

“Lena,” she whispers, “Lena, wake up.” 

It is not that easy. Lena doesn’t even budge. 

Kara turns her head to look at Mr. Sleazy again. He’s still leaning against the truck. Kara tries to decide which one could use a bath more, but she can’t come to a conclusion. The dirt is clouding her judgement. After looking him up and down she’s pretty sure the worst he could come up with would be some lewd comments. But that still makes her too uncomfortable to leave Lena alone in the van while she goes to buy some refreshments. 

She tries waking her again.

“Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey!” Kara sing-songs as she rubs up and down Lena’s shoulder. 

After a few more tries Lena opens her eyes and starts looking around, completely disoriented. She realizes where she is, and who she is with. Her shoulders loose the tension and she falls backwards into her seat. 

“How long was I out?” she asks after yawning a little. 

“Long enough to become a person again.” Kara watches Lena’s face colour at the memory. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to deck out like that.” She shakes her head a couple of times so that hair is now covering her face, but her expression still shines through.

Kara can feel something crack a little inside her chest at how endearing she looks.

“Don’t worry about it.” She tightens her hold a little over Lena’s arm before releasing it completely. “Do you want to come inside? I’m gonna go fill up on snacks and tank the van.”

Kara watches Lena look past her, at the gas station and the truck. She can basically see her brain working out different possible scenarios. Kara can’t say she doesn’t understand. It kind of comes with the territory. Besides, they still have to be careful. Just because they’re out of National City doesn’t mean Cadmus stopped looking for them.

When Lena looks back at her Kara already knows what she’s going to answer. She bites her lip to hide a smile.

“I think I’d better be outside for a little while. Get some fresh air.” She looks pointedly at her pale skin, and Kara can’t hide her laugh this time.

 

When Kara comes back from the small shop, holding about five different bags of chips and two lemonades, she is met with a very conflicting sight. On the withered patch of grass nearby the parking lots, there’s Lena, with her arms crossed over her chest and her Office Look **™** on, staring down at Mr. Sleazy, who has just become Mr. Get-Away-From-Her-If-You-Care-About-Keeping-All-Your-Limbs. Part of Kara wants to rush at Lena’s side and just KO this guy. That’s the Supergirl part. But the other part of her, the human part, the part that trusts Lena and what she’s capable of...well. That part just wants to sit back and watch.

But then... _ then _ . Kara experiences the next couple of seconds in slow motion, as if the universe had the sole purpose of torturing her. 

His hand, his big, filthy hand, reaches out towards Lena’s waist. Just as the tip of his fingers brush against her baggy hoodie, Kara appears at her side, more or less out of thin air. 

Kara looks at Lena and tries to gauge her reaction. She knows she shouldn’t have used her powers like that, but if she had to watch what was happening a second longer she would have gotten sick. 

Lena schools her expression as quickly as she can, but Kara can see the confusion and surprise in her eyes. She begs her silently to not say anything. Lena moves her head slightly, in a vague vertical direction. A nod. 

Kara focuses back on the dude standing next to them. She sees the hunger in eyes, the way his fingers twitch. She underestimated him. He is more stupid than she first thought. A smirk forms on his face. It makes him uglier, showing his true colours in a way. Kara takes a sideway step, so that she’s touching shoulders with Lena. Her heartbeat speeds up, her eyes dilate. Her fingers tighten their hold on the bags. She uses a great deal of willpower so that she doesn’t just pulverize the chips or break the glass.

But then Lena does something, which makes her clench her fingers again, this time not to drop everything out of shock. A hand shakes its way across Kara’s waist and squeezes her. Kara doesn’t dare to turn her head. After a few seconds she is glad she didn’t, because she feels Lena’s warm breath on her cheek and then two soft, smooth lips touching her. 

Lena Luthor is kissing her. Kara’s blood goes cold. Then, slowly, like when the river melts the frozen shore, she warms up again little by little, as the shock leaves her body. She starts regaining her senses. She becomes aware of the thumb brushing against her waist, of Lena’s voice whispering something against her skin.

“Just play along.” 

Then, after leaning back, she asks in the sweetest voice possible:

“What’d you shop, babe?”

Kara wakes up and gets the hint only after Lena pinches her, with the hand that still encircles Kara.

Kara turns her head and looks at her with her best lovey-dovey eyes. “Oh, you know, just something to eat…” 

Lena smiles brightly at her like she just heard Kara found the cure for cancer. 

Someone clears their throat near them. That’s when Kara even remembers her murderous thoughts from only moments before. She looks back at the guy, forcing her smile to stay put on her lips. “Did you want something?”

He opens his mouth to answer, but then changes his mind. He frowns angrily and stomps away. Kara watches as he enters his truck and presses down on the gas until the engine sounds like it’s on its death bed. He drives away, quite aggressively. There are tire marks left on the ground. 

Lena lets go of her waist.

 


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's to a gay 2017

They lay out a blanket on the grass and bring out everything edible they have in the van. Chips, lemonade, sandwiches, and a couple of apples that Kara inconspicuously places next to Lena. They sit down with the food between them and their backs to the van and the gas station. In front of them are never-ending fields, with a tree here and there. The sun has disappeared behind some clouds and the wind has picked up some, but it’s still not too cold out. 

Kara looks at Lena out of the corner of her eye to see if she’s okay, since her superhuman powers keep her warm in any weather, and thus do not constitute a reliable source of sensorial information. Lena’s usual paleness make it difficult to see if she’s colder than usual. Given how absorbed she is with her sandwich though, Kara doesn’t think that’s the case. She preoccupies herself with her own food for a while. 

While she’s going through the second bag of chips in a row, Kara realizes she can no longer hear the sounds of chewing next to her. She looks up and sees Lena quietly studying her, her hands still holding on to that sandwich. 

She must have been looking at Kara for a while.

“What?” Kara asks between two mouthfuls. 

Lena shakes her head but still looks at her, a little too intensely, studies her a little too closely. 

After holding her gaze for a few moments Kara leaves the chips and rubs her hands against the blanket. She turns her focus completely on Lena. The time for the Awkward Conversation about her super speed has arrived. 

Kara already feels her chest tightening. She hates that she has to lie to her. 

“There’s something about you…” her eyes are cloudy. Kara can see she’s not sure what she wants to ask. 

Kara feels the automatic excuse get stuck in her throat. “Som - something?” 

Lena waves her hands in Kara’s direction. She opens her mouth, Kara can already hear the words. The questions. The Confusion. 

“I’ve decided to go on this roadtrip with you, in this van that’s basically the vehicle version of the Giza pyramid, sleep in shabby hotels...but I know nothing about you...not really.” She looks...sad. And regretful. 

This is not where Kara thought the conversation would be going. She swallows hard before asking, “Do you regret it?”

Lena frowns, “Regret what?”

Kara tilts her head towards the van. “This. Saying yes to this trip with me.” 

Lena stills completely. She sucks in a breath that she releases very slowly. Her face relaxes, she looks more open, more determined, as if she just understood something. She puts the sandwich away and knits her hands in her lap. She looks straight into Kara’s eyes and Kara knows, in that moment, that whatever happens next will have no barriers, and no walls. Nothing to hold Lena back. And it scares Kara. But it also excites her. 

Lena’s voice shakes, but she doesn’t stop talking until she’s done. 

“As you probably know, I haven’t had that many close friends growing up. And my family, well...you know that story.” Lena smiles ruefully. “I got used to it, at some point. Always being surrounded by people, having people in my life, but not actually overcoming that loneliness that now just...it just feels like a part of me, you know?” 

And yes, she knows,  _ God  _ how she knows.

“But then  _ you _ came along and…” Lena just sits there with her mouth open for a couple of moments, not finding the right words. “You blew my bubble right up.” She smiles again and this time, there’s no sadness behind it. “You made me trust you, just by being you. But now that I think about it, I don’t really know anything about you. I know that you’re a reporter, and that you’re kind, and selfless, and ambitious and really good at your job,” she chuckles. “But still, I can’t shake this feeling that…that you’re here because you  _ have  _ to be, to protect me, because Supergirl asked you to and of course you said yes, because you’re  _ you _ , not because you actually want to be here, with...with me.” 

Power of speech has left Kara so completely, so mercilessly, she simply sits there staring at Lena, with a very dumb look on her face. Slowly, as she catches up with everything she just heard, as her brains gets to process it, she starts shaking her head. Slowly, at first, but then gaining more and more speed as she finally understands what is happening. 

Kara has always been so friendly, and so kind, even when she disagreed with her, that now Lena thinks she doesn’t even  _ want  _  to be here, when in reality there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. 

Kara starts feeling a little dizzy from all the head shaking. “No, Lena, I...you’re wrong, I…” Kara breathes in sharply and just rips the bandage off. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Lena looks a little doubtful, but she doesn’t comment. She gazes at Kara for a few more moments, before going back to her sandwich, as if nothing had happened. 

When Kara understands the conversation is over, she starts picking at her chips again. It gives her something to do. They taste sour in her mouth.

 

* * *

 

 

They change places in the van. Lena at the wheel, Kara riding shotgun. Kara tries making small talk a few times, but it falls flat, even to her own ears. 

To kill time, she takes out the small reporter notebook she brought with her out of instinct. With a pencil in her hand and her feet on the board, she sets to sketching the view in front of her. The endless road, the nearby trees that seem to fly away in the opposite direction, her mismatched socks in front of her. A delicate hand holding the wheel to her left. 

Kara spends more time on that hand than she cares to admit, but she wants to get every detail right. The wrist bone. The curve of her fingers. Kara imagines the skin as smooth as the lips that touched her cheek earlier that day. She grips the pencil a little tighter to stop herself from reaching out and testing her theory.

Kara sees Lena look at her out of the corner of her eye, sees her raised eyebrow.

“I hope this is okay.” Kara gestures to her notebook.

“Yeah, no, I...I just didn’t know you could draw.”

Kara shrugs. “Well, now you know.” She taps her pencil against the notebook a few times, before saying, “Maybe it’s time we learned a little bit more about each other.” 

When Kara glances at her Lena’s looking back at the road, but Kara sees her trying to suppress a smile.

 

* * *

 

 

The hotel they stop at this time looks infinitely better than the last one. 

It’s a big, imposing building, an old villa that belonged to some old, rich woman with no family. So it was bought and then transformed into a hotel by a smart-looking man with a nose for business. There’s a picture of the owner next to the description, on the signpost in front of the building. 

He’s tall, with short, raven hair and a pronounced jaw you could cut yourself on. His eyes are pushed back into his face, the same colour as his hair. His lips are pushed into a thin line. Kara doesn’t think the man has smiled even once in his life. He is not handsome by any means, but the sharpness of his face combined with his height demand respect. He stands straight with his hands tied behind his back, in a black suit combined with a black tie.

Kara could see just by looking at the picture this was a man who knew how to get by in life. He is an intriguing figure, but it’s not him that catches Kara’s attention. 

Next to the owner, there’s another man. His somewhat shorter, but broad-shouldered. He has a long, rectangular face with chestnut hair and chocolatey eyes. He’s not as sharply dressed as the other man. His suit is dark blue, he doesn’t have a tie and the first two buttons of his shirt are open. He’s leaning on one foot, with the other one stretched out, only touching the ground with the tip of his shoe. What really strikes Kara however, is that he’s smiling. A wide, open smile. His eyes have crinkles because of it. It makes Kara instantly trust him. He looks open, the kind of man listens to all of your problems and gives amazing hugs.

The two men cut a fascinating pair, standing next to each other. They have completely different expressions, but they look well together nonetheless. Kara wonders who the second man is. The text doesn’t say anything about him.

After Lena has read the text as well and they discussed possible backgrounds for the two men, they enter the villa together. They walk into what once was a huge ballroom. Huge watercolour paintings hang from the walls. An enormous chandelier is placed in the middle of the huge hall, its crystals reflecting the light on the paintings, making them come to life. Four leather sofas form a ring, encircling a coffee table. 

Behind all of this, at the back of the room, in front of a round, imposing stairway, is the front desk. The woman behind it looks up from the her computer when they come in. She goes around the desk and comes forward to meet them. Her high heels clink against the marble floor and echo throughout the room. 

Kara wonders suddenly if she’s even allowed to be here. 

After looking them up and down - Kara feels a wave of relief, glad she at least chose to change into a pair of jeans instead of sweats - the woman smiles tightly. But when she speaks her voice is smooth as silk, and there’s no tone of malice in her voice. “Welcome to Arcadia. How may I help you?”

Kara gapes at her like a fish. She knows she should say something, but the woman looks straightly into her eyes, and Kara feels her soul get devoured. She blinks a few times, tries to get her bearings. She tries speaking again, but Lena beats her to it. 

“Hello, and thank you for agreeing to give us a room on such short notice.” Lena smiles sweetly at the woman, and nods her head towards the staircase. “Shall we?”

Kara gapes at her. A room? Short notice? She doesn’t get the chance to ask however, as a bulky man is called in to help them with their bags, even though Kara insists there’s no need.

Upstairs, there’s another spacious room with bookshelves and sofas. Two women in evening gowns occupy one of the sofas. They share an embrace that’s way too intimate to be just friends. They do not pay their little group any attention, too enamored to even glance at them.

Kara tries not to stare. She feels something stir in the pit of her stomach. She stumbles over one of the carpets, which makes Lena turns and look at her quizzically. Kara shakes her head and moves on, but she feels herself getting warmer. 

The woman from the front desk opens a door, which leads to a long hallway. At the very end of it is another door. Their destination.

Their room is bigger than Lena’s office. There’s a king sized bed, two armchairs, a huge tv and a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. After making sure they’re satisfied, the woman takes her leave.

“So what is this place?” Kara asks as she plops down on the bed. 

“Don’t worry, it’s completely under the radar.” 

“Right, but...how did you even get us a room? And when did you..” Kara doesn’t even know what she wants to ask her. She raises herself on her elbows to be able to look at Lena.

“In the car, while you were sleeping.” Lena smiles mischievously. “I made a call.”

Kara nods, but doesn’t give up. She wants to know  _ everything _ . “That still doesn’t answer my question.” 

Lena raises an eyebrow, “Which one? I didn’t quite get all of them.” 

Kara rolls her eyes, but asks again. “How do you even know about this place?” 

Lena sits down next to Kara on the bed. Kara heaves herself up, so that she’s sitting straight as well. 

“You know the owner, from the picture downstairs?”

Kara nods.

“I helped him gets his boyfriend out of prison.”

Kara frowns. She’s not really sure she wants to know the answer, but she has to ask. “What did he do?”

Lena shakes her head, “Nothing.” She turns her head so that she’s looking at Kara. “It was in Russia. He was imprisoned for being gay.”

Kara’s suddenly cold. “Oh.”

Lena hums in agreement, before sighing. “So now I kind of have a free pass here, whenever I want to.” She says as she looks around the room.

Kara thinks back to the two women. “So is this like an exclusive gay club?” 

Lena bursts out laughing. “I suppose you could call it that, yes.” She looks at Kara again and this time Kara can see a hint of nervousness in her eyes as she asks, “Is that a problem?”

“No, no! God, no, it’s just…” Kara can’t hide a smile, “it’s just pretty cool you know about this place, that’s all.” After mustering her courage, she asks, “You come here often?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever brought someone here, actually.” She clears her throat. “But I’ve come here before, to ask Evan for advice, if nothing else.”

Kara doesn’t even hear what Lena says at the end. The thought that she’s the first person to ever come here with Lena makes her warm all over. Her head is feels fuzzy, so she concentrates really hard to form a response. “Evan? Is that like - ?”

“The guy who owns the place? Yeah, that’s him. His boyfriend’s name’s Alexei.”

Kara doesn’t say anything after that. They sit in silence for a few minutes, before Lena stands up again and starts going through their bags. After some rummaging she takes out two black boxes. She hands one to Kara.

“What’s this?”

“Just open it.” 

She does. Inside is a silky black dress. Kara knows just by looking at it that it’s probably more expensive than everything else she knows, besides the Supergirl suit. She looks at Lena. 

“It’s for tonight.” Lena explains. “We’re going to have to dress up for dinner.” 

Kara doesn’t even want to think about the implications of Lena having taken this dress with her on this trip. This dress, that has been especially made for Kara, she realizes as she takes it out of the box. So she doesn’t think about it. Instead she asks:

“Are you asking me out?” Kara means it as a joke.

“Is that wishful thinking?” Lena counters. 

Kara wants to say Lena looks hopeful, but  _ that _ would be wishful thinking. She goes into the bathroom to change.

When she comes out, her heart stops inside her chest. Lena has changed as well. Not into a dress, but into a suit, as sharp as the one Evan was wearing in the picture. Black blazer, black suit pants and a white silk shirt. The high heels make her legs go on forever. Kara colours the shade of Lena’s lipstick. 

“Wow.” 

Oh. She didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“My thoughts exactly.” Lena says as she looks at her, entranced. 

Kara looks at herself self-consciously. She takes a step back so that she can see herself in the mirror hanging next to the door. 

She has to admit, she has never looked better. The dress is slim, but not so tight that she can’t move. It has an open back. Kara is suddenly thankful for all the hours spent as Supergirl beating up perps. Her heels are high as well, but not as high as Lena’s. 

Kara extends her hand as an invitation. Lena walks up to her, and Kara places her hand in the crook of her elbow. She turns them so that they face the mirror.

They make a striking pair. 

Before she can second-guess herself, Kara raises herself on her toes and kisses Lena on the cheek.

“Thank you for the dress.” 

Lena nods in acknowledgement. “It looks beautiful on you.” She places her free hand over Kara’s and squeezes before dropping it. “Ready?”

Kara smiles. She feels it with her whole heart. “Ready.”

 

Kara is glad she didn’t argue with Lena about the dress when she sees how the others in the dining room are dressed. Still, they turn heads. Both men and women alike whisper behind their hands, look at them unabashedly, no longer care about manners. 

Kara and Lena are a storm and these people are waiting to be destroyed. 

They walk together to a more secluded table. A waiter draws out the chairs for them. Kara is mesmerized by everything that’s happening: by the people, by the cute waiter she’d probably date in a world where she’d never met Lena, by the way Lena is looking at her, like this  _ is _ a date and like she’s the most beautiful person in the room. The waiter has to ask her three times what she’d like to order before she comes back to her senses. 

“Oh! I...whatever she’s having.” She gestures at Lena.

The waiter nods respectfully and walks away. 

“What did I just order?” Kara whispers across the table. 

Lena smiles, “Don’t worry. You’ll love it.”

For some reason, that seems to be enough. 

 

It’s a goddamn cheeseburger. Kara cannot believe her eyes when the cute waiter appears with two huge plates, both toppled with fries and cheeseburgers on top. His expression betrays nothing, looking as serious as if he was delivering an intricate french meal with three green beans and some exclusive fish Kara wouldn’t be able to pronounce the name of.  

But it’s just a cheeseburger. A completely normal, American cheeseburger. Kara looks up at Lena, who’s already smiling at her. 

“I told you not to worry.” 

Lena picks up the cutlery. “The only difference between this and something we’d eat at home is that here we can’t eat with our hands.” 

Kara is afraid if she touches it it’s going to disappear. Her eyebrows still haven’t come down from her hairline. “Is this even on the menu?”

The glint in Lena’s eyes says otherwise. “Let’s just say the chef is a good friend of mine.”

Kara finally starts eating. As soon as the cheesy paradise goes into her mouth she’s incredibly disappointed she’s in a room full of people. She has to bite back a moan. When she’s done she says:

“I really,  _ really _ love your friends.”

They dedicate the rest of the meal to the food in front of them.

 

Kara has no idea how they manage to climb the stairs leading up to their room after dinner. Neither does she know how her dress still fits her, or how Lena still looks comfortable in her really, really tight pants - though when she asked her Lena confessed to opening the first button, which got them some long looks from the people around them.

But, by some miracle, they manage. The first thing they do is change into pyjamas. The second thing they do is argue about the bed.

“Kara, I’m not letting you sleep on the floor.” 

Kara really wants to use the argument about how her alien constitution completely trumps back pain, but she can’t exactly do that with Lena. So she tries negotiating.

“Well, no one said I have to sleep on the floor. I can just as well move the armchairs together, they would make a perfectly reasonable -”

Lena holds up a finger in front of her, shutting Kara up. “Please don’t even finish that sentence. There’s a perfectly good bed here. I’m not letting you submit yourself to eight hours of slow torture.”

“Fine.” Kara uses her this-is-not-fine-but-i’m-tired-of-arguing tone. 

 

So they share the bed. The bed is so big it might as well be two separate beds, but it’s not, and they might as well be at a random hotel, but they’re not. They’re at an exclusive under the radar gay club and Kara is sharing a bed with Lena Luthor.

Sniper would kill to get his hands on this story.

The thought of Sniper makes Kara feel sick however, so she stops thinking about him. She focuses instead on the faint smell of roses coming from Lena’s side, on the warm feeling nestled in her stomach that’s not entirely due to the cheeseburger she just ate.

Focuses on the smooth hand that’s just inches away, that she could touch if only she reached out a little bit more. 

The possibilities make her dizzy, so she stops thinking about them as well. 

She tries to relax. Even out her breathing. Get the tension out of her muscles. Stretch out her toes. 

A light snore comes from Lena’s side. Kara bites back a laugh. 

The sounds gets stuck in the throat however, when Lena rolls over and throws an arm over Kara’s waist. Her face gets buried in Kara’s shoulder, but judging by her steady breathing, she must be asleep. 

Kara stiffens immediately. Fear overcomes her. What if Lena suddenly wakes up and realizes she’s basically cuddling her? That’s a conversation she doesn’t want to have. 

But Lena doesn’t move, her breath doesn’t hitch, her eyes don’t open. Eventually Kara relaxes and starts enjoying the heat coming from Lena’s body. The warm weight of the arm draped over her stomach. The skin to skin contact and the butterflies that come with it. 

She closes her eyes and falls asleep within moments.

  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 3

When Kara wakes up and sees how they’re positioned, she prays really, really hard for Lena to still be asleep. Not so that she can shift away, no. But so that she can enjoy the warmth that’s already spreading in the chest for a little longer. 

They changed their positions some time during the night. Now Lena has her back to her, and Kara is more or less spooning her from behind. Her face is buried in Lena’s neck, so close that she could touch her with the tip of her nose if she tilted her head. 

One of Kara’s arms is encircling Lena’s middle, the other one trapped between their bodies. Their legs lie alongside each other, touching from the knees and up. 

The huge blanket is half-lying on the floor. 

The sun is already up and shining into the room through the thin curtains, giving everything a soft, warm glow. Microscopic dust particles wander through the air. Some land in Lena’s hair, and Kara moves the hand she had over her waist to skim them away. 

Without meaning to, Kara ends up simply caressing her hair and untangling the few knots she finds. The movement and the feeling of Lena’s hair running through her fingers calms her. She’s almost falling asleep again, when she feels Lena shift and breath out a yawn.

“Oh God, what time is it?” Her voice is lower than usual, and hoarse. 

Kara stills her movements to answer. “No idea. Later than we woke up last time, anyway.” She takes her hand away from Lena’s head, but has no idea where to put it. After some internal debating, it ends up alongside her own body. “You sleep well?” Kara thinks back to the night before and fights back a blush. 

“Best night’s sleep I’ve had.” Lena turns around to face her. Her eyes are greener than Kara remembered them. “You?”

She relives the feeling of Lena rolling into her side. “Yeah, it was pretty good.“ After a moment, she adds, “I should let you take care of our accommodation from now on.”

Lena’s eyes sparkle and she laughs. “Thank you. I’m glad you liked it here.”

Kara looks at her and suddenly gets the desire to kiss her. The way a few strands of hair fall into her face, the way her eyes shine in the sunlight...right in this moment, she is irresistible.

Her eyes dart to Lena’s lips and then up to her eyes again. 

But reality knocks at the back of her mind. Kara knows they can’t stay in this bed forever, and she knows the consequences might make her or break her. 

And she won’t survive if they break her.

So she turns on her back and starts rubbing her eyes instead. “You wanna go first or should I go first?” 

“You can go first.” 

Kara can feel Lena’s intense gaze, but she doesn’t look back at her. She stands up and after stretching a little she pads into the bathroom.

When she comes back Lena has already made the bed and changed into her jeans and a white t-shirt. 

“I could have helped with the bed, you know.” Kara says.

“It’s okay. I’m used to doing it alone.” Lena looks at her and smiles. There’s no sadness behind it. No self-pity. 

Kara squeezes her shoulder as she walks past her. “Still.” After letting go, she adds, “We’re on this trip together. I wanna help.”

Lena doesn’t fight her. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

“But don’t get angry when I’ll call you to come and help me make my bed after we get back home.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kara drives them to the Grand Canyon. They had been further east, but a game of ‘never have i ever’ ended up with Kara in a state of shock at Lena’s admission of never having seen it. So after a U-haul in the middle of the road, Lena’s mini heart attack and a lot of honking from the cars behind them, they drive all the way to the Grand Canyon.

They arrive just before sunset. Kara has seen it many times, as Supergirl. From the clouds, taking it all in, hearing all the animals big and small make their way through small tunnels graved in the rock. She didn’t think it could get any better.

But right now, sitting in the back of an old van with Lena next to her and a blanket draped over their shoulders, Kara is just as breathless. The crimson sunlight makes Lena’s eyes seem violet, and her skin lost its usual paleness. 

She is otherworldly, and Kara is afraid she will disappear whenever she closes her eyes. She links their fingers together under the blanket, to make sure she’s really there. Real. With her. Flesh and blood.

Lena squeezes Kara’s fingers, but looks at the view in front of her. 

“You were right.” She looks at Kara quickly, before turning back. “This is definitely worth experiencing.”

Kara feels the urge to kiss her again. She shoves it deep, before saying, “I’m glad I got to experience it with you.” 

Lena looks at her, then. Fully turns her attention to Kara, holds her gaze. 

It makes Kara shiver. She watches Lena bite her lip and slowly lean towards her. Her eyes leave Kara’s only for a moment, to look at the lips. But they rise again to Kara’s own. Lena stops a few inches from completely closing the distance between them. 

Kara can already feel her breath on her own. She doesn’t dare move, afraid the spell will break.

“Tell me to stop, and I will.” Lena whispers again her lips.

Her heart is pounding so hard, Kara can barely hear her. But she sees the indecision in Lena’s eyes, the nervousness slowly creeping in when Kara doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything. 

Lena draws back imperceptibly. Kara can feel the moment slipping through her fingers, her most burning wish getting further and further away from becoming a reality with every passing second. 

So she closes her eyes, hopes to God she didn’t misinterpret this, and surges forward. When her lips meet Lena’s, something clicks inside of her chest. She can almost hear it: the well breaking open, a waterfall of warmth spreading faster and faster throughout her body. She is melting, and it almost hurts with how much she wants to keep going, keep kissing her.

Kara’s hand falls slack when Lena lets go of it under the blanket. Kara wants to protest, but then the same hand lands at the back of Kara’s neck and pulls her even closer.

Breathing doesn’t become a priority, but it’s requisite for survival makes itself known, and they have to pull back. But Lena’s fingers don’t stop scratching the back of Kara’s neck, and Kara’s hand doesn’t fall away from Lena’s cheek. Their breathing comes hard. It forms small, white clouds in the space between them, before dissipating. But the cold doesn’t bother them. They do not notice it, or the sun descending below the horizon.

They have eyes only for each other.

No words fill the silence. It would be redundant. Instead, Kara kisses her again, every new kiss lasting a little bit longer, every new kiss a little bit bolder, every new kiss tasting a little bit more like home.

Lena shifts however, after a while. She blames it on the cold when she climbs over Kara’s legs and settles in her lap. Kara rearranges the blanket so that it mostly covers Lena. She never needed it, anyway. 

But Lena doesn’t pay attention to her, she’s way too focused on making Kara breathe out inhuman sounds with every new kiss that lands on her neck. Her hands are on Kara’s waist, shaking their way up under her t-shirt. 

Kara’s glasses are opaque by this point. As if not being able to see Lena properly wasn’t bad enough, they hinder Lena from being as close to Kara as she’d like. 

So Lena takes a necessary break from the amazing kissing so she can take off Kara’s glasses, in order for even more amazing kissing to happen. Lena looks at Kara for a moment, after her glasses are out of the way. As if she’s studying her. Really  _ seeing _ her for the first time.

Kara knows she should say something. The words are dancing on her tongue, barely waiting to come out. But Lena is cupping her cheek, and when Kara opens her mouth, Lena slips her thumb inside. She keeps it there for a moment, before moving it across Kara’s bottom lip. Kara is too stunned to do anything but look at her. There’s something new in Lena’s eyes. A fire. But it quickly turns into something else, something Kara doesn’t have time to understand because Lena is leaning in and kissing her breath away. 

There’s a faint voice in the back of Kara’s mind that tells her she should put a stop to it. If she could ignore the alien elephant in the room before, that possibility went out the window as soon as the glasses left her face. But then Lena’s lips come up again against Kara’s, and her teeth tug against her bottom lip and 

_ Oh. _

She doesn’t want it to stop at all. 

Lena seems to hear that voice though, through the sighs and the faint moans, and the grumbling whenever she pulls away. So when she kisses Kara again, it’s chaste. But her eyes remain soft, and her thumbs don’t stop stroking Kara’s skin and when she smiles, Kara understands. 

She knows. She knew before, and it didn’t matter. Now, it matters even less.

So Kara kisses her again, because there’s nothing else left for her to do. 

 

Darkness has settled over the Grand Canyon. The sky is brimming with stars, more than Kara has ever been able to see back home in National City. She would be entranced any other day. No one would be able to pull her away. 

But not today. Today, she’s lying in the back of an old van with Lena Luthor next to her, so close together she can feel Lena’s breath on her neck. They had brought sleeping bags with them, due to Kara’s hunch. She had a feeling they’d have to sleep in the van. Better to be prepared. 

So now, curled together, Kara couldn’t care less about the stars. Not when she has Lena’s eyes to gaze at, her skin to imprint in her mind. 

She doesn’t sleep for a long time. Reality finally has exceeded her dreams.

 

They are woken up by a huge bang. Kara is up in a flash, just in time to see the back doors of the van fly open and reveal four troops in full body armor, hosting alien guns. 

Kara braces herself with all her might in front of Lena, but when the alien guns go off on her, she might as well have been made of paper. She’s blasted through the front windshield and into the Canyon. Her fall creates a noticeable crater. Kara grits her teeth at the pain, but pushes it to the back of her mind and rushes back to the van. Her stomach turns at the thought of Lena being hurt.

By the time Supergirl gets back, those men are gone, and so is Lena.

 

* * *

 

 

Kara flies directly through the DEO’s headquarters and lands right next to J’onn.

“What happened?” He asks as a way of greeting.

“Caught us by surprise in the middle of the night. Alien guns. After blasting me into the ground they took her and disappeared.” Kara’s lips are still tingling from kissing Lena. She glances at the clock. Half an hour ago she was nuzzling her hair. Now, she’s hollow and ready to kill. “Do we know where they took her?”

Just as J’onn is opening his mouth to answer, all the screens go black, before the familiar doll face appears and the robot voice is filling up the bullpen.

“This message concerns only Supergirl. We have her. If you want her to live, you shall come to the warehouse where this first started. Come with back-up - she dies. Don’t come - she dies. You have one hour.”

Kara is gone before anyone else has time to do anything. 

 

The warehouse is empty. No cages, no equipment, no nothing. Fear creeps down Kara’s spine at the thought of getting the place wrong. It’s dark and humid. She squints her eyes, but it doesn’t get much better. 

Kara starts walking around. The sound of gravel getting crushed under her boots is the only thing penetrating the thick silence. 

Suddenly, a light appears at the far end of the warehouse. It’s faint, but what it reveals makes Kara sick. She can feel her bile rise in her throat.

Lena, tied to a bed, that’s positioned at an angle, so that Lena is able to see everything in front of her. Both of her hands and her ankles are tied to the metal frame of the bed. There’s a wide strap going over her middle, and a smaller one over her neck. A cannula is connecting her to a huge machine. The needle is hidden under the metal ring encircling her wrist. There’s nothing going through it, as far as Kara can see.

Lena looks pale, and ready to faint, but otherwise unharmed. Kara rushes to her side and studies her more closely, looking for injuries.

Lena opens her side and offers her a weak smile. “Supergirl.” 

Kara can see even talking is craving a lot of her, but it doesn’t stop her. Her voice is barely above a whisper.

“You came.”

Kara strokes her hair. “Of course I did.” She wants to lean down and kiss her.

Lena looks into her eyes and Kara fights back tears. She leans down and presses her lips against the crown of Lena’s head. “You’re okay, it’s okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

Then, a voice rings out from the darkness in front of them. It fuels Kara with rage, and she has to refrain from breaking the metal frame of the bed into pieces. 

“Well, well, well...isn’t this just the  _ loving _ reunion between you two. Lena, darling, why didn’t you tell me you and Supergirl were so close? I would have invited both of you to dinner.” 

Lillian Luthor emerges from the darkness. She is standing straight and proud, keeping her head high. The smile doesn’t leave her face for a moment, even though Kara knows Lillian must be as ready to kill as she is. 

Kara stands up and takes a step forward, positioning herself between Lena and her mother. 

“Let her go. She doesn’t play any part in this.”

Lillian’s smile grows. “Oh, on the contrary. Without her, none of this would have been possible.” She walks closer and stops only a couple of feet in front of Supergirl. She tilts her head, as if she’s lost in thought. “Who could have known...the best way to hurt Supergirl, is to hurt those she loves.”

Lillian snaps her fingers and a bright green substance fills the cannula going into Lena’s arm. As the substance hits her system, Lena screams out. 

Kara turns suddenly to look at her. The veins in her neck are popped out, and her head is stretched back and pushing against the bed. Lena tries moving around, but the straps are too tight. The cannula doesn’t budge. 

Kara is at her side in a flash, ready to pull out the tube when Lillian’s voice stops her. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The needle is programmed to shoot poison into her bloodstream if it detects movement. She’d be dead within seconds.”

That’s it. She’s had enough. Kara turns on her heels and flies in Lillian’s direction at full speed. 

And directly through her. 

She barely has time to break off her momentum before hitting the wall. 

After reappearing at Lena’s side, the hologram impersonating Lillian smirks at her. “Did you really think I was so stupid as to come here in person?”

“She sent me instead.” 

Hankshaw jumps down from somewhere and lands in front of Supergirl. He’s hosting the same kind of gun that blasted her into the Grand Canyon only hours before. Besides all the other tech that Supergirl saw in action at the attack on L-Corp. 

He pulls the trigger just as Kara focuses her heat vision on him. The rays meet somewhere in the middle and illuminate the entire warehouse. 

Kara gets pushed back by the force of the beam. She hits the bed frame with her heels, at the same time as Lena lets out a particularly loud scream. 

The sound makes Kara cry out, before pushing herself and doubling the force of the heat vision. It blows the gun away from Hankshaw’s hands. Supergirl doesn’t waste a second; she rushes towards him at full speed and topples him over. 

Supergirl opens her mouth to freeze him into a huge ice cube when an elbow hard as steel hits her in the gut and leaves her breathless. Hankshaw manages to reverse their positions and ends up on top of her. He lands a punch to her face before Supergirl uses her heat vision to blow him away. 

She’s picking him up and holding him by the collar when Lena’s cry makes her turn. 

“No! Get off of me! Get the hell off of me!”

Kara turns, and there is Lillian, the real Lillian, doing something with the cannula. 

“Lena!” But Kara doesn’t get to do anything more than shout her name, because Hankshaw kicks her and she is thrown into the nearest concrete pillar. 

He positions herself above her and holds her down to the ground. He leans down and sneers into her ear, “I’m not gonna kill you before you see her die, just like I had to watch my family die.”

Kara headbutts him, but he doesn’t loosen his hold. She is trapped between him and what’s left of the pillar.

Lena cries out again and Kara turns instinctively to look at her. 

Lillian holds a syringe to Lena’s neck. Kara picks up with her super hearing Lillian’s words. 

“You were right, my darling. You were never a Luthor.”

She’s about to push the liquid into Lena’s neck, when Kara sees Lillian’s hand drop the syringe to the ground. After a second, Lillian falls slack and falls down as well. 

Kara understands what happened when she sees Alex appear from the shadows, in full tactical gear, holding a sniper rifle. But Alex isn’t looking at her. She’s headed towards the huge machine that Lena is connected to.

Kara doesn’t get to study Alex longer than that as Hankshaw bashes her head into the ground. She focuses back on him after the world stops shifting around her. 

She tries using her heat vision again, but her energy supplies are almost empty. But she manages to shove him off of her, and that’s what matters. Supergirl stands up and sucks in a breath, but it gets knocked out of her when Hankshaw runs into her at full speed.

Suddenly, the weight that’s pushing her is shoved away. Kara thrusts her feet deeper into the ground and breaks off her speed. She looks in the direction Hankshaw was bulldozed and there’s Guardian, definitely with the upper hand against the other man. He looks like he could beat him up just fine by himself, but that doesn’t mean Kara is going to let him. 

She takes a step in their direction, but then the room starts shifting around her. The walls start closing in, the sounds of clashing metal fade away. Suddenly, she no longer seeing Guarding and Hankshaw, but the roof. She tries getting up, but her muscles no longer listen to her. Nor do her eyes, when she wants to keep them open. 

Kara’s last thought before everything disappears is whether or not Lena is alright.

  
  
  



	5. Epilogue

The first thing Kara becomes aware of is the beeping. The second are the neons imitating the sun’s light that shine directly above her. The third, is the warmth encompassing her right hand. A smooth hand is lying under hers, another one is softly squeezing from above. Kara opens her eyes.

There’s Lena, in a hospital chair. She’s changed her clothes. Now, she’s wearing a grey DEO hoodie, not unlike the one Alex has given her. Her eyes are fixated on her hands, so she doesn’t see that Kara has woken up.

There are no visible injuries, but Kara knows that doesn’t mean she’s okay. She has probably been in that chair ever since they brought her in. 

Kara squeezes her hand to get her attention. Lena jolts in her seat and her head turns sharply to look at Kara. 

“Oh my God, you’re awake, how are you feeling?” Lena stands up and moves to sit at Kara’s side, on her bed. One of her hands moves up to Kara’s forehead, before cupping her cheek. The other one doesn’t leave Kara’s hand.

Kara smiles softly at her. “Been better.” After a small shrug, “been worse, too.” 

One of Kara’s hands cover Lena’s, the one that still hasn’t left Kara’s face. She looks worriedly at Lena. “Has anyone checked in on you?”

Lena shakes her head. “They tried. After the fifth time I told them I’m not moving until you wake up, they left me alone.” 

When Lena tells her that, the admission makes Kara forget to get angry at her for refusing help. All she can think of is a bunch of muscular DEO agents too afraid to ask Lena to move from her side. It makes Kara giddy, even though it shouldn’t. This is serious. 

“That...substance your mother used…” Kara says after taking control of her emotions. 

“My own invention. Hurts like hell, but other than that, doesn’t affect humans.” Lena heaves a sigh. She waits for Kara’s reaction.

Kara studies her silently. She knows she ought to be upset. Deep down, she is. There’s a part of her that’s ready to fight. But she’s too tired, and Lena’s eyes are too green, and the hand against her skin is too warm and smooth to the touch. 

Kara closes her eyes and relaxes against the pillows. She brings Lena’s hand against her lips and kisses it. “Please let them check to see if you’re okay.” Kara opens her eyes to look at her. “I’m still going to be here when you’re done.”

Lena nods and stands up. She leans in to kiss Kara’s forehead. “Try to get some rest.”

Kara watches her leave. Outside, she sees Lena approach a man in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. 

She doesn’t even see Alex stand in the doorway until she clears her throat.

Kara greets her, but Alex just smiles and comes inside. “Will I have to give her the talk?”

“That’s basically what her mother said when I went to the warehouse to save her.” Kara is silent for a moment before asking, “we’re that obvious, huh?”

It’s not really a question she wants answered, but Alex doesn’t spare her.

“It’s like sirens go off every time you two are in a room together.” Then, on a more serious note, “How are you feeling?” 

“Not so fresh.” Kara grins. “But it does help that I have a cute girl taking care of me.”

“Cheeky.” Alex is smiling too though. She turns to look over Kara’s vitals. “A couple of more hours and you should be good to go. It was a pretty risk you took out there, going out alone.” Alex looks at her seriously. “You should have waited for back-up.”

Kara shakes her head. “I couldn’t. Knowing she was…” she doesn’t want to finish that thought.

Alex doesn’t say anything, but Kara knows. She can see it in her eyes, the understanding. She can see her put herself in Kara’s position, with Maggie out there. She wouldn’t have waited.

“A couple more hours.” Alex looks at her pointedly, before walking away. 

When she’s at the door, Kara speaks up. 

“Hey, Alex.” 

Alex turns to look at her, and Kara offers her a smile.

“Thanks for the rescue. Pass it on to Guardian, too.”

Alex smiles back. “Anytime, Supergirl.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kara is painting when someone knocks on her door. She uses her x-ray vision and sees Lena waiting on the other side, holding a pizza box.

Kara opens the door and grins. “Lena, hi,” Kara steps back and Lena slips inside the apartment after leaning in and kissing her cheek. 

“Hello, Kara.”

“I wasn’t expecting you.” Kara can’t say she’s upset though. 

Lena places the pizza on the counter and turns to look at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good, now that you’re here.” She grins and goes to open the pizza box. It’s her favorite. She looks back up at Lena and asks, “what are we celebrating?”

Lena shrugs, but Kara can see something is one her mind. “Me not dying,” she looks at Kara intently, “you rescuing me.”

Kara sighs and rearranges her glasses. “Look, Lena...I wanted to tell you, I just…”

But Lena is shaking her head. “That’s not…” She takes a deep breath. “I don’t hold it against you. Not telling me.” 

She smiles, but Kara can see it’s a little forced. “I kind of always knew, on some level.” 

And yet. It’s not the same. Knowing something because you guessed it and knowing something because someone trusts you with their secret.

And Kara knows that. 

So she takes off her glasses. Lena understands what she’s trying to do and tells her it’s unnecessary, but Kara shushes her. Slowly, she unbuttons her shirt, revealing the S that’s underneath. 

She faces Lena, who’s watching silently. Her eyes are a little shiny. She bites her lip and lifts an arm to trace the S covering Kara’s chest with her fingers. 

Kara shivers at her touch, but when she speaks, her voice is low and steady. 

“I wanted to tell you. When we first met, and then started talking - I wanted to tell you. But it felt inappropriate. Then, on the road trip, it never felt like the right time to do it. And then,” Kara breathes in, and her voice is not as steady, “then, you kissed me. And it was too late.”

One of Kara’s hands hovers over Lena’s jaw, before settling against it. 

“But you took off my glasses, and you looked at me, and I...I couldn’t say it, then. And I can barely say it, now.” 

Lena takes a step closer and closes the distance between them and when she kisses Kara, it’s different. It’s truer. 

Kara can taste salt against her lips. 

She tightens her hold on Lena’s waist and strokes the tears away with her thumb. When she kisses her again, it’s a little desperate. 

These are her consequences. And she’s about to break.

But Lena pulls apart and breathes out a shaky laugh, before resting her forehead against Kara’s and softly kissing her again. 

“Out of all the people in the world…”

Kara almost doesn’t want her to finish that sentence. But she needs to know. She holds her breath, doesn’t dare move. 

“...I fell in love with the best one.” 

Kara smiles, then. She lifts Lena up, making her squeak. But Lena locks her legs around her waist and places her arms around her neck and Kara feels like they’ve been doing this their whole lives.

She takes them to the couch. Her heart grows a little when Lena doesn’t move away from her lap, simply choosing to lean in and kiss her deeply. 

Kara slips her hands under Lena’s shirt and up her back. 

“If you’re trying to lead by example by unbuttoning your shirt, it’s not going to work.” Lena leans back slightly to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “It’s going to take more than that to get in my pants, Danvers.”

Before Lena can blink Kara lifts Lena up and dumps her on the couch, before moving on top of her. Lena doesn’t even have time to scream. She looks at Kara with wide eyes, but Kara is grinning.

“Don’t challenge me.” Kara leans down against her and leaves a trail of kisses down her neck. 

Kara doesn’t mean to wind her up, but it just sort of happens for her knee to settle between Lena’s legs when Lena’s hands tug against her hair to bring her closer. 

Kara moves up again to Lena’s lips. 

She spends her sweet time getting to know her reactions, until she knows them better than she knows herself. When she pulls apart, they’re both breathless. 

“I should go lock the door.” Kara says. Deep inside, she wouldn’t want to move from where she’s lying right now even if someone held an alien gun to her head. 

The look Lena gives her says the same thing. “Don’t you dare move.” 

“My sister has the bad habit of showing up unannounced.” Kara looks pointedly to the almost nonexistent space between them. “I’d rather keep this part of my love life private.” 

Lena smiles fondly and tugs her back down to kiss her again. “I’ll be good. I promise.” 

Kara sighs, defeated. “Fine.” She shifts a little and settles down against Lena’s chest. Lena’s hands move automatically to her hair. Kara closes her eyes, content. 

Kara is almost asleep when she hears Lena whisper something. She’s not even sure if she’s meant to hear it, or if Lena is just talking to herself. 

“You know, I...I never thought this would happen. I have hoped for it, but…” Kara can feel Lena sigh under her. 

She tilts her head up to look at her. “What do you mean? A Super and a Luthor?”

But Lena is shaking her head. “No, not that.”

Then, after a pause,

“You and me.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
